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Originally posted by doctorwho
First of all, let me say Steph is my favourite performer on the show. That is why I found this so funny! One night while channel surfing - apparently Stephnie's character is a complete copy of a character that was done by another actress on another show! You can say "based on" or whatever, but I saw this performance and it has everyhing Weir's character Dorothy Lanier has : the over-the-top dramatics, exaggeration, the same hair even, it was hilarious! Theres no way its a coincidence. I can just imagine when Stephnie saw her she must have known that character was too good to pass up. Here's proof :http://simon.helenheart.com/gallery/violet/index.html

Do you think that Anna Nicole's 'people' told Stephnie not to do Anna anymore? I mean, she's(ANS) doing those trimspa commercials now and I don't see why Steph would pass on such a great impersonation.

__________________It's all fun and games until someone gets punched in the throat.
-------------------------------Morgan & Nik - Nocturnal Twins Forever
-------------------------------"Tacocat is spelled the same backwards and fowards!"
Shawn 2/6/87 - 12/5/04
-------------------------------

Originally posted by PitaPockets Do you think that Anna Nicole's 'people' told Stephnie not to do Anna anymore? I mean, she's(ANS) doing those trimspa commercials now and I don't see why Steph would pass on such a great impersonation.

I think Stephnie felt bad for her... she saw her in a parking lot once and yeah... i don't know the whole story

I wish they would do more, Anna Nicole Smith is the only recurring impression that has never gotten old to me. I love it. But now that she's thinner, it probably wouldn't be as funny ( ) to make fun of her, even though she is still a stupid.... plus her show is cancelled, and Anna Nicole Smith saw Stephnie in the parking lot of the studio one day and Steph though she was going to punch her in the face (She said that in her interview with Sharon Osbourne)

Comedian and actress Stephnie Weir, a cast member for FOX's MADtv, admitted to being a little nervous about performing in front of her hometown Saturday.

"I can't tell you," said Weir, a native of Odessa. "I dream about the running order. I am very excited."

Weir and husband Robert Dassie were to perform their improvisational, sketch comedy show "Wedlocked" at the Globe Theater, 2308 Shakespeare Road, Odessa. The show is a fund-raiser for the Globe.

"It's a gem. It really is," she said. "I was showing it to Bob. We actually went on-line and looked at it and he said I can't believe this theater is really there.

"Its such a beautiful place and to keep it going and to have that available to the West Texas community I think it is really important," she continued. "I think working at the Globe and doing theater there tuned me into what was available outside of West Texas."

Her fans got a treat on Friday as Weir and Dassie visited Big Spring to talk with Howard College theater students. The event was open to the public.

"She's as cool as she is on TV," said Stacy Robbins, a fan of about seven years who drove from Snyder to see Weir live for the first time.

Weir and Dassie field questions about the entertainment business, about the craft of improvisational comedy and even performed a quick improvisational sketch to the delight of the audience.

"I wanted to be here in the first place because I'm a huge fan of MADtv," said 17-year-old Tapley Holguin, a Big Spring High School theater student. "She's a very talented performer."

"Seeing Stephnie Weir is a great experience ," said 18-year-old Reina Cisneros of Big Spring, who is studying theater at Howard college. "She's as funny as she is on on TV, a charismatic person."

Weir told the audience made up mostly of students studying acting that although many of them might think she has it made "big," she is very much in the same situation as they are.

"I have a job right now but there will still be tons of ups and downs," she said. "Sitting right there you might think that's not the case, but we all go through the same struggle. That's part of the journey."

Weir's friend Lawrence Thibeault of Big Spring, who has known the actress since her days of community theater in Odessa, said he is often awestruck when seeing his old acquaintance on television every Saturday night.

"It's just amazing how someone from a small town hit it big," Thibeault said. "I have other friends in New York still trying to make it. She stuck with it and had that focus."

A graduate from Odessa High School, Weir studied broadcasting and theater at Odessa Jr. College. Saturday's performance was to be her first in Odessa since 1989. The show, "Wedlocked," was set for 7 p.m. at the Globe Theater. Tickets were available at the door.

Comedy festival short on film, but not on laughs
By Ellen Fox
Special to the Tribune

With Chicago's reputation as longtime comedic incubator, it's little surprise that Friday's Chicago Short Comedy Video & Film Festival 2004, at the Biograph Theater, is rife with veterans of the local sketch and improv scene.

Second City alum and "MADtv" player Stephnie Weir and Second City co-owner and "SCTV" executive producer Andrew Alexander are the featured guests, kicking off the festival's two programs of shorts with their own contributions.

At the 8 p.m. show, Weir introduces "My Blood Doesn't Clot Right," which she filmed here with festival coordinator Willy Laszlo on a single sunburned day in May.

Shot on the lakeshore, the six-minute short recounts the tale of three Southern women--played by Weir, her sister and her best friend--who try to find their way back to their hotel after their tour bus leaves them stranded at the Museum of Science and Industry.

As her first foray into shooting her own script, the afternoon proved challenging for the ad-lib-prone actress.

"It was a script that I kept changing on them--to try and fine tune on the spot," said Weir, noting that her sister doesn't improvise. "Just changing the lines on her, in the moment, kinda blew her mind."

At the 10 p.m. show, Alexander will introduce excerpts from a recently released DVD box set of "SCTV," which, if nothing else, will allow viewers to gauge how well the sketches hold up after some 20 years. Alexander is optimistic. "The comedy still works as well today as it did when it was shot," he said.

The 8 p.m. program includes a dozen shorts, all of which are Chicago-based, including Dan Dinello's five-minute "How to be Popular"--an early incarnation of the Comedy Central series "Strangers With Candy." The 10 p.m. lineup has faces from the Chicago comedy scene, like Rich Talarico, Craig Cackowski and Robert Dassie in "Jakarta Boom Boom" and TJ Jagodowski and David Pasquesi in "Dock."

Midnight brings a screening of "Mile Marker," a 50-minute travelogue by Second City alum Talarico and award-winning TV commercial-maker Leroy Koetz. Shot in 2002, during Talarico's trek out to Los Angeles to write for "MADtv," the film documents the duo's nutty encounters with people along Route 66, like an army buff who lets them fire a machine gun and a guy who drinks his own urine.

"The rule was, we stopped if we saw anything remotely interesting," said Talarico, who now writes for "Saturday Night Live."

As for the point of making short films--since they don't seem to find an outlet other than festivals--motives differ. To some, like Bill Ward, whose "Driver Ed" concerns an obsessive driving instructor, they're a way to test out material in front of a live audience.

"If they react well, then there's encouragement to try and develop it into something bigger," like a feature film, Ward said.

Others, like Talarico, who recently sold a screenplay about mall security guards to Paramount, say the pursuit is the reward.

"You're not seeking anything other than the reward of doing it. And I guess the reward is getting to do it on a bigger and bigger scale," he said.

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The Chicago Short Comedy Video & Film Festival 2004 is Friday at the Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. Tickets for the 8 and 10 p.m. shows are $10, the midnight show is $7; tickets available via box office or phone 312-458-9597. For more information, visit witsendshorts.com.

I'm posting this on behalf of madtvlover who's computer is a bit screwed up right now.........She recently had the honor of meeting Stephnie Weir at a show she did in NYC.....so this is the experience in her own words......There is also a picture to go with it that I'll attach.

"I had originally gone just to see the show but while I was there and while there was a break in Stephnie's performance I decided I would sneak backstage to try and meet her. So I got backstage and got to meet and talk to Stephnie......It was such an honor to meet Stephnie Weir last month. She is one of the kindest and friendliest people I've ever met. She's too sweet for words. She was so kind to give me an autograph, chat with me and take a pic with me backstage!! Thanks a bunch Steph....you're awesome!!